A Whole New Side
by E-Kiarlic
Summary: The team's back with many new job proposals! This time, they have a whole new theory to explore and exploit! Will they be able to get the job done? Rated T just in case. No actual pairings as of yet. :  R&R!
1. A New Theory

Disclaimer: I do not own anyone or anything in regards to the movie, Inception... :(

* * *

Phillipa ran over to her father who was sitting at the computer. He had kept in touch with his teammates after the Fischer job. Once a week, they actually connected through MSN Messenger, talking about how their lives were at the moment. Right now, the subject was about how they were going to find work that woud pay a lot, wouldn't need too many layers and had someone with little training as the mark. It seemed like something that was impossible. Also, Dominic didn't want to go away from his children for too long and couldn't try anything illegal again.

"Look Daddy! You've got a letter!" She said, happily waving it in front of his face.

"Thank you Phillipa!" Dom said, giving her a peck on the head. The young girl laughed and went off running to play with her grandfather.

The man opened the letter, reading it over carefully. He turned to his computer, typing in "_You won't believe what I just got in my mail this morning. :O_".

The sound that played whenever someone answered instantly repeated itself ten times. He smiled and looked back at the letter.

* * *

_Dear Dominic Cobb,_

_We would be interested in hiring your team for a couple of extraction jobs. These are currently legal, but will still pay you very well. There will be some time allowed for practice in the beginning to get used to the marks. I am an expert in the field and will work along with you to help._  
_We hope that you'll be interested in this offer, as we know that you're all very talented and want to try a new area of extraction with the PASIV. I will be waiting for your team's arrival in a couple days, at the address that is on the back of this letter._

_Sincerely,_

_Dr. Mouton._

_Ps, We know that your forger, Eames is currently in prison for a minor charge. Our current proposal only applies to everyone who is left in the team at the moment of writing this letter._

* * *

"Thank you all for being here." A woman smiled as she walked in front of a white blank desk. Other than her, there were four other people present. Dominic Cobb, Arthur, Ariadne and Yusuf sat on both sides of the long rectangular table in the middle of the room.

"Once again, my name is Dr. Valerie Mouton. As I mentioned in my letter, I have very many job proposals for you." As Valerie glanced over to Dom, she remembered another bonus that she offered them. "Theoretically, these should be very quick jobs."

The team members were still curious on who they were going to work on next. This doctor seemed to have a lot of powerful connections, as she had arranged a meeting with them in a week after finding out who they were. She was dressed in a simple pair of jeans and a black sweater, with a white lab coat on top. Her shoulder-length hair simply moved along with her head as she talked and watched them with her green eyes.

"Who's going to be the Mark?" Arthur spoke up, noticing that the others seemed silent.

"The first one's Frou-Frou." Dr. Mouton answered simply and started taking out a few photos from a thin folder.

"Frou-Frou? Who has a name like that?" Yusuf asked with a small laugh.

"Frou-Frou's a pure-bred, toy poodle." With that answer, everyone was shocked. Even Arthur squinted a little, wondering if he heard well or not. All of them started to ask questions quietly to each other, wondering if this person was crazy or not. As she passed them the photos of the poodle, it seemed as if they were as confused as ever.

* * *

**Author's note:** I had a dream today when an animal 'projection' attacked someone who kept bothering me in my dream. That and an article about animals and their dreams inspired this fanfic! By the way, sorry about taking out Eames for the time being. I just couldn't feel his character in my writing. Also, sorry it's a little short, but I promise a longer one next time! R & R!


	2. Testing

**Disclaimer:** I still seem to have no rights to Inception... :( Hehe, enjoy this chapter!

* * *

"Yes, I understand that this might sound unusual..." Dr. Mouton started. "But hear me out."

"I'm sure you all know that research has shown us that animals dream as well. Recent tests have been done and when cats and dogs sleepwalked, they acted as if they were awake." She smiled and took a deep breath before continuing. "My clients have different issues where we must see what the animal might have seen, heard or experienced in a certain situation. They might not be able to speak, but we could provoke some reactions or see how the scene plays out by itself."

Everyone was quiet, contemplating what she had just said. Ariadne seemed very intrigued and looked over at Dom to see if he felt the same way. He had a certain expression that was both curious and serious. Arthur, after thinking for a while, picked up the photo of the dog again.

"How many levels do we need?" Yusuf spoke up, wondering how much would he have to give an animal to be just lightly sedated.

"Theoretically, we'd need two at the most for the current jobs." Valerie noted, taking out a pile of papers with her research and putting it on the table.

"When can we start?" Dom spoke up, provoking a few smiles all around. This seemed to be quite a change in scenery, so why not try it?

"Please follow me." Dr. Mouton opened the door and led them outside. They had been inside a small office building and were now talking the elevator down. Inside the small space, there was a paper on the wall that indicated on which floors had professionals working. The elevator stopped on the second floor, where it was written Veterinary Clinic next to the number 2.

It was currently empty, despite the fact that it was 11 o'clock in the morning. The doctor unlocked the front door with her keys and turned on the lights as she went in. The waiting room had a nice warm feeling to it, even though they were somewhere that animals didn't seem to like to be. They kept walking past the reception desk and to a door with "Dr. Valerie Mouton" written on it in gold letters.

"Welcome to my home away from home." She simply said, opening the door and turning on the lights there too. It wasn't the usual veterinary room, which was often small and only had objects to inspect an animal. Here, it had a lot of space, a bookshelf full of books, a desk with two chairs on wheels, a computer and many other things. In the far right corner, there was a couch next to the vast windows. There was even a tv and a small kitchen.

Valerie brought out a few more reclining chairs so that they could sit down and be comfortable. "You have brought the PASIV with you, right?"

Arthur nodded and put the gray case on a small table. "Who are we testing it on?"

She smiled and walked out into another room. She brought back a small critter, who seemed to be already asleep. Looking closer, they all saw that it was a white ferret, wrapped like a ball around itself. "This is my little girl, Vanilla." She picked the ferret up and it just hung like a dead creature. "Ferrets experience Dead Sleep. That's when they're in a state that is difficult to wake up from. I thought that this would save us the trouble of testing out the chemical reactions on a pet at first."

"Are you sure that we should just go in without any preparations?" Ariadne asked, unsure of what to do for the location.

"Well -" Dr. Mouton stopped as she felt the ferret moving and waking up, wondering where it was. "I guess we'll keep it at the first level."

The vet walked over and put the ferret in a small bed that was next to her desk. She took out some photos and brought them over to Ariadne. They showed a home and a hallway that was inside of it. "This is where Vanilla loves to run around and play the most in the house. You can make a much longer hallway for now, since she shouldn't notice it. Otherwise, small differences can mean a lot for an animal."

The team started preparing, making sure that they would be ready for whatever would await them in the dream world this time. Ariadne finally organized the hall to turn a little bit every few inches so that it would more maze-like and longer. The small tubes from the PASIV were adjusted a little to be used on the ferret. When they were as ready as they could be, each person sat down in a comfortable chair. Valerie put the ferret in her arms and they all drifted away to sleep.

* * *

At first, everything seemed normal. They were standing in the hall that Valerie had shown Ariadne. There were a few ferret toys on the ground and Vanilla was up and about. The whole team saw that Vanilla rushed over to Valerie and started chasing her. She laughed and explained that the little one loved this game.

Dom looked around, wondering what where the ferret's projections. There weren't any humans here or animals for that matter. Right on cue, when Ariadne started to change the scenery little by little, a cat walked in. It carefully watched them, with a small smile.

The ferret started fighting with one of its toys, which surprised all of them. The toy was actually fighting back! Obviously, the toy had lost as Vanilla brought it back to her home.

When Ariadne pushed her luck and started changing things a little more, the cat started hissing at them and approaching. What scared everyone was that the toys seemed to come to life and all started crawling, jumping or approaching them too.

~_This reminds me of Toy Story..._~ Dr. Mouton thought, not sure if anyone else had the same feeling.

Suddenly, they all attacked at the same time. Some toys even had teeth now and claws, with which they started hurting the team.

As the cat jumped at Valerie's throat, she woke up, throwing the little ferret into the air. Luckily, Vanilla landed on her and was also awake. She ran to the mirror and looked at her throat, seeing that it was all right. She wasn't hurt. Putting a hand to her neck to double check, the woman took a deep breath. She never expected it to feel so real.

Turning back, she heard a few gasps as her teammates all woke up.

* * *

**A/N: **Vanilla was inspired by my ferret, who often goes into dead sleep. xD Oh, and also, reviews help me write faster... okay? *Hint* xD Because adding this to your story alerts is just fine and all, but I need to know if I'm on the right track with the characters or not. :)


	3. Getting Ready

**Disclaimer:** I don't own inception... I do own Dr. Valerie Mouton, whose name is obviously connected to the theme of this fanfiction.

A big thanks to TheCrazyArtist's review! I did kind of rush the ferret's dream, but I'll take it slower in the next ones. **;)**

* * *

Dr. Mouton walked back to see if everyone was alright.

"Well, one of my theories was correct then..." She started saying as she wrote something down on a notepad. " Are you four okay?"

"I don't know if I would have used the word 'okay'..." Ariadne muttered, seemingly still shocked. Her first experience with dreams have made her thought that she had seen it all, but she was mistaken.

"More like K.O." Yusuf added with a small laugh. Unfortunately, no one else seemed to share his humor, though they all did feel quite 'knocked out' after the experience.

Luckily for Dr. Mouton, she had been killed in the dream quite quickly. The others were attacked repeatedly by those items and were scratched a lot. Just the fact that the teammates woke up a few seconds after her meant that they experienced much more pain than she did before being saved. She didn't see that it looked like if many flying piranhas or giant mosquitoes were attacking them. It was a pain to try and fight them.

"It wasn't that bad..." Valerie showed a tentative smile. "I'm sure human projections could be worse."

"With human projections, their attacks were more obvious. Whereas these projections..." Arthur paused, thinking of what terms he could use.

"Well, let's just say that these projections can be anything as long as the animal believes that they're alive. This means that we don't really know what to expect for every animal." Valerie added quickly, still writing down her findings.

"Yes, it's quite surprising." The corner of Arthur's mouth moved slightly, barely showing a smile.

"We were definitely too exposed in that small space." Dom simply stated, already thinking of solutions. He took out the small tubes and place them back in the suitcase. "How can we hide from the projections?"

The whole team started thinking of ways to maybe shrink down to the size of the animal itself or maybe make everything as big as they are. Dr. Mouton walked over to the window, looking outside to find something that would inspire her. She thought about different possibilities when she saw her reflection in the glass. Wide-eyed, she turned back to the others, who were still thinking.

"I know what we can do!" Valerie felt like jumping up from happiness, but she reminded herself that she was among professionals.

She ran over to the center of the room, motioning them all to come closer. As she told them her idea, she received some approving nods and comments. She started talking with Ariadne to discuss the maze that they would create for the next try. It would obviously have to have much more space and still make it seem like the same hallway that the ferret was used to. Yusuf added a few interesting concepts as well to help them decide.

* * *

Arthur and Dom stepped out of the room momentarily. They have worked together for so long that they felt the need to discuss each case separately from the entire group.

"Are you still up for this?" Arthur asked as he studied his friend carefully.

"Of course!" Dom answered, smiling in a somewhat weird way.

"You like this idea don't you?" He knew that smile from before.

"Did I ever tell you that Mal had a cat?"

"Yes, briefly. Why?"

"Before our experiments with the PASIV, Mal kept wondering what her cat was dreaming about as it moved in its sleep."

"Have you ever tried the PASIV on the cat?" Arthur wondered if this was where Dom was heading.

"No. It died around it's fourteenth birthday." Dom took a deep breath before continuing. "It was one of the reasons that I brought Mal into the dream world. She couldn't stand the fact of getting a new cat, so we had one in our dreams."

"Won't it interfere with our upcoming jobs?"

"On the contrary..." Dom seemed joyful now. "After these jobs, I will have fulfilled one of Mal's biggest wishes. She'll be able to rest in peace."

Arthur nodded in agreement, while still thinking that it would be Dom that would finally stop feeling enough guilt to keep on living a somewhat normal life. They walked back into the room, seeing that the others were sitting in a circle, ready to try again. Dr. Mouton looked up along with everyone else and smiled. She put her papers to the side and pointed to her ferret, who was now sleeping.

"Vanilla's experiencing Dead Sleep again. We should try going to the second level this time." She suggested.

"Alright, let's go for it!" Cobb propped down on a reclining chair and attached the special tubes to his wrist.

Each person closed their eyes, while Yusuf pressed the button to send them off to sleep.

"Good luck!" He simply whispered, thankful that he was going to stay out of it this time.

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**A/N:** As always, reviews help me write my next chapters! **:3** This was mostly a filler chapter, but the action comes next!


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